This bothers me too. Especially when you can run up on a healthy/undamaged animal.

Humans are good long distance runners, most animals are not. They can take off fast but they have a hard time sustaining that speed. Early humans used to chase their prey to death. You'd get in some kind of initial damage to the animal, then you'd start chasing it until it falls over from stress, exhaustion, and bleeding out. Its not a quick and easy kill but it worked. Sometimes you'd chase an animal for days.

I feel that if an animal is undamaged, then you shouldn't be able to catch it. You should be required to sneak up on it and get in some kind of initial damage. Once that has occurred, then they can make a determination on how long the chase should be based on what can be considered fun gameplay. Unfortunately, I don't believe most people want to be chasing a deer for five minutes waiting until it falls over and dies. It doesn't make them feel heroic.

Too literal
Just trying too address the speed issue.

I've kept up with dear before but you could tell it was hardly trying it's best even tho it did stumble once which made me stop, short answer it's not gunna be bothered running full tilt against a human we are just to slow it with stay ahead but not waist energy on getting a significant lead. Also I still say B/S as the dear I used to watch also in woodland and they run not hop, hopping is to show strength and to put off predators it is practised by planes animals like antelope. Also humans are actly one of the best long distance creatures on the planet, as stated above tribal peoples used to run down prey, I've seen a doc on it where a modern tribe still practises this skill of persistence hunting, exhausting the animal into collapse over a day or more, very interesting, must of us are just to sadatory to imagine doing that tho lol shame on alyou fatty lol

i played OOO mod last and there was no way to catch up to a wolf or a deer and i had really high speed

I played OOO last night and was running up and cutting down herds of deer left and right. I was basically right out of the sewers too. Wolves are easier because you merely have to get close then they go after you. And Pyro, we all know you aren't running as fast as deer.

On topic though they should tweak the speeds so it is not easy to catch them, at least not as easy as in Oblivion. It would definitely capture the intensity of a chase, as well as heighten your sense of caution around wolves and bears. Also, heavy armored warriors shouldn't be able to catch a deer. How the IL Foresters could do it is beyond me.

Animals werent slow.
Your athletics is high.

When I have a high athletics I want to be one of the fastest things around. When I have 100 athletics and am not wearing armour, I want to be able to run alongside M'aiq.

My current level 33 on Oblivion has an athletics of about 55 and wears heavy armour. He cant outrun many things.

I agree animals should be faster. That way roleplaying as a hunter could add importance and pelts/meat can be worth more. Other characters will have to buy ingredients, hopefully they will increase importance and relevance to such things. Money should be hard to get so hunting is something you actually want to partake in because of rewards.

most deer tend to stay out in open during summer and forests during winter.. the white-tailed deer can run at around 30mph .. usein bolts (fastest man in the world) rcored top speed of 27.3 mph..

this leads me to 2 points ... Pyro_monkey did not run as fast a deer .. and deers should be faster although as someone stated it would be harder for people to collect venison if they're not ranged..
and they should be able to retaliate somehow.. if a deer feel threatened / cornered it may attack and they do hurt if they hit you.. perhaps knocking over your characterand running off

Much things aree awesomely too slow in game, wolves, deers, arrows, spells travelling speed, horses, bow pull and so on.

This has always been lame.
I hope they are able to this right or at least let modders tweak this.

i wasnt able to out-run a deer? O_o i svck -_-'

Clarifying edit: Bears did charge people until they figured out we had guns.

Wrong...
Bears will charge anyone if extremely hungry, protecting prole or territory, or feeling threatened.

A bow is more than enought to take down a bear.

Thats when you know how much [censored] the game is.

OK what other mod did you use that overthrew OOO settings ?

Yeah So dangerous animals can be dangerous like mountain lions in oblivion
hard to outrun

It was funny when I could race (and beat) a timber wolf. Maybe some creatures should just be too fast, no matter what?

I think the problem here is that the player's speed is unnaturally high, in order to avoid the walking to be tedious (much people complained about this in Morrowind). This way if they do not make animals speed unnaturally fast too, you will catch them and if they do the game will lost immersion (more than it do with too slow deers) when you see a deer running from a wolf, both at rocket speed.

Whats wrong with outrunning animals if your fast? you couldn't outrun a deer as an imperial right out of the sewer, you had to work at it. I really think people are going overboard with this 'realism' craze. Since when was Nirn or its inhabitants real, or governed by real laws/rules of our reality?

i also wouldnt object to outrunning deer if youre fast. but the thing is i could outrun deer without effort, without deliberately training up my speed and athletics. i have used OOO, FCOM and things in between,.

It just lost the feel of the game knowing that I could outrun everything. Kinda lost the whole danger aspect even with the difficulty turned up. At mid to high level though, I did feel the danger of the mountain lion because I couldn't outrun it. It made me become wary of the west and thus gave me a challenge when i ventured there. I don't believe you need to be slower. I believe that animals just need to be tweaked a little bit to give them a better sense of danger. At a very high lvl of speed, perhaps augmented over a hundred, I see you as being able to outrun almost anything, but not catching up to a deer at a speed of 50. Come on

If you want real life go outside. Video games Shouldn't be held down by the real world. Maybe humans are a lot faster in TES, maybe you're a Khajiit or Argonian. It all adds to the experience. Sure we can't run as fast as deer in real life, but we can't cast fireballs out of our hands either.

A white tailed deers MAX sped is around 30 MPH. Why do you assume every deer is capable of running at the max speed. Yeah this isn't the best source but http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0004737.html The max human speed is just a few miles different, so it seems logical to assume that a fast human might keep up with an average deer. Or is it only humans that have ranges of attributes, all deer run the same speed I am sure.

I have no information about pyro, but for the game who cares if we can outrun them if fast enough. In oblivion I jumped off of water do I care that I can outrun a deer, not really.

The deer in B.C must be slower from eating all those herbs lol

Yes, but you have to admit that most of the animals in there are based on real life. It's a small issue that I hope that they will at least address. It would give someone who wants a hunter type character more meaning and standing in the world.

Don't go comparing a fireball to a deer. Argonians and khajiit start off faster anyway.

It's not the speed of the deer that ruins the hunting, it's the AI. I've never seen a deer run ten feet, then stop to eat some grass, then run around the person hunting it.